Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-02-14
Fire at the Asylum.

caster that the Insane Asylum was or
fire. The Court House bell and the bel
on tire Mansion House were soon ring
ing out the alarm, but as the church
bells were ringing at about the same
time, the alarm was not much noticed.
Virgil Showalter, son of Hon. r. B.
Showalter, the superintendent. brought
/ in the news. He came on horseback,
and in thin coat and slippers, though
/ the thermometer marked zero. The
news soon spread over town and in a
/ few minutes hundred men were on
their way to the scene with all the speed
to which horses could be urged. The
buses and Sam Greene's long sleigh
were called into requisition, and boys
and men chung on wherever they could.
But before any of them arrived the fire
was under control, and soon few
small smouldering places where smoke
issued from between floors, some CHAIR
ed and smoke.stained walls, and the
drenched and deluged halls, were all
that remained of the fire.
The smoke was first discovered by
Mrs. L. j. Willard, an assistant at the
asylum, and wife of the overseer of the
farm, issuing from beneath a Dashboard
in the first room to the right as one
enters the north wing. This is the
women's end of the house and contained
AZ female patients. Mrs. Willard hast
ened to get some water which she dashed
on the floor at the point from which the
smoke came. Opening the door of the
next room she found it full of smoke,
and flames darling up through the foul
air register. Hastily summonlng MIR.
Craig, the chief attendant of the male
ward, she gave the alarm to Mr.. Sho-
walter and her husband who were at the
Poor-house. All this happened in about
a minute after the smoke was first dis
covered, and in less than five minutes
forty men, usually insane, but sane
enough in: an emergency to do as they
were hidden, were coming aud going in
q line between the well and cistern and
the fire, while Mr.. Showalter with his
efficient assistants, Craig and Willard,
tore away the floors and ceilings and
deluged them with water. The women
helped too. bringing water in tubs, pans
and milk cans. The women who could
give no assistance were removed to the
Poor-house, and the few men who could
not help were locked in their end of the
building, safe from the fire. After the
women were removed NJ was discovered
that Catherine Murray, Grant county
patient. was missing. Her room was
on the second floor directly over the
fire. Mr. Willard fastened to her rescue
and finding the door hard to open,
though not locked, he burst it in and
CROPPED his way, blinded with smoke
over a burning floor that gave beneath
his feet, towards the bed. He found
the woman lying PROSTATE upon the
floor, face downward, and dragged her
out nearly suffocated and unconscious.
DR.. Barber soon after arrived and sue
ceeded in bringing her out all right.
The first outside assistance to arrive
was Wm Mcmahon, nephew of the
county treasurer, and another young
man whose name we have not learned
They were passing by and seeing the
smoke issuing from the windows which
had been broken out to clear the smoke
from the rooms, fastened to the asylum
and rendered very valuable assistance.
With this exception the credit of saving
the asylum belongs solely to the super
intendent and his assistants, and to the
unfortunate men under their charge.
Had the latter been so many sane men,
each would have had different idea
and wanted to try some different plan,
but the perfect discipline which is main
tanned there told in such an emergency
and the order and system with which
the work of fighting the fire was carried
on, would do credit to well drilled fire
department In half an hour from the
time the fire was discovered they had il
under control.
The fire caught near the furnace
where a stick of timber passes through
the building, lying on top of the wal
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